Thaindian News

Lahore, March 8 (IANS) Acting once again with impunity, terrorists rammed a car packed with over 600 kg of explosives into a building housing the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) in the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province, officials said. At least 12 people were killed
The FIA building, located in the upscale Model Town residential neighbourhood, was teeming with employees when the huge blast shattered it.

The deafening explosion left 68 people injured and bloodied.

“It was a car bomb. The terrorists detonated the explosive-laden vehicle at the main gate,” DPA quoted Tariq Saleem Dogar, the police chief for Punjab province, as saying.

The FIA probes terror-related incidents and the office where the bomber struck was used to question important terror suspects. An FIA building in Lahore bore the brunt of a bomb attack in October 2009.

A police official said the FIA’s special investigation unit was located in the residential area as there was a shortage of offices.

A student narrated the horror of the car bombing.

“We were in class when a huge blast took place. It shattered window glass. I was thrown several feet away,” the student at the Quran Academy seminary said.

Javed Akram, the head of Jinnah Hospital, said eight security officials were among the 12 dead. A woman who was taking her daughter

to school was also killed. The girl was in critical condition.

The explosion was so powerful that it created a huge crater and damaged buildings close by.

Television channels showed people trying to pull out bodies and the injured from the rubble. Locals dug with their bare hands to help the victims.

“It was around 8.15 a.m. when I heard a deafening blast which shook my house,” said Nasim-ur-Rehman who lives over a km from the scene of attack.

“When I rushed out I saw thick smoke billowing out,” Geo TV quoted him as saying.

No group claimed responsibility for the terror strike.

The bombing damaged several buildings and vehicles in Model Town, home to a number of politicians including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said militants had moved to cities after facing defeat in tribal regions and the Swat Valley.

“Those who are killing innocent people are not Muslims, they are hired assassins,” Malik told reporters in Islamabad.

He observed that the Lahore terror strike seemed to be the handiwork of Taliban and militant groups linked to Al Qaeda.

“In almost every blast there has been their involvement and they themselves have also claimed responsibility for attacks,” Malik said.